August 4, 2012 Evacuate Lollapalooza

 It wouldn't be Lolla without a religious asshole preaching his twisted version of the bible to all the sinners attending the concert.

This particular douchebag will spend eternity in a special place in Hell because I checked with my God and that's exactly what He told me. So after I verbally abused him while on the phone with my friend Adam...

...he decided to attack the Hare Krishnas who were peacefully dancing behind him. He started chanting that they were worshiping a false God, that the bible says there is only one God and theirs is a false God. One of the Krishnas tried to calmly explain that God is there for everyone, but the mentally unstable one with the megaphone just stepped up his attack on them. Imagine that, this guy made the Hare Krishnas seem normal. I told the Krishna you can't argue with crazy, he just laughed. As entertaining as all this was, I headed into Grant Park for some sinful music.

 Once again I stopped to check out the ongoing art project at Perry's. The cute Asian girl with the pink boots and short shorts had nothing to do with my decision to stop here...seriously didn't even notice she was in the picture...really...fuck it who am I kidding.

 A bit of foreshadowing...it was a beautiful day in Chicago...very hot...but blue skies.

 Take a close look at Doomtree...two dorky white guys providing the beats, another white man who looks like his day job could be as an accountant and a sexy white woman who looks like she is from the set of Desperate Housewives...they rocked the mics and were great at old school rap with a political message. I loved their set and stayed for the whole thing.

Here's Doomtree's other two rappers. A rap collective I guess, they took turns on the mics and each one had the old school Beastie Boys / Run-DMC flow that I still love to hear.

 The comment I hear the most is how cool it is to attend a music festival right in the city. The skyline makes a great background for a festival.

 This is Bear in Heaven. I had to check them out for my wife, Chrissy. The kids seem to love the spacey electronic rock music...me...not so much.

 The band schedule.

Iconic Chicago shot. FYI - This is part of Lollapalooza, so tourists can not walk up to the fountain this weekend without a ticket to Lolla.

 For the second day in a row, I was blown away by a young soul singer. This time it was Aloe Blacc who I have heard of but his live performance was incredible. Another talented songwriter and fantastic singer that showed off some Temptations / Four Tops dance moves. He had the mostly white crowd dancing throughout his set in the 95 degree heat.

 Mr. Blacc's band was top notch too. I love a good horn section.

This video shows how powerful the song "You Make Me Smile" is. I'll be using this song when I DJ weddings.

 Then the day took a strange turn...I walked by the Google Play stage and Chairlift was not playing. Then I saw the info tent closing up by putting the sides down. Now is a good time to admit that I do not have a smart phone. No twitter, no internet access, just an old fashion, old man cell phone. So I did not recieve the message all the kids got from social media sites. When I got to the Playstation Stage or Petrillo Bandshell for Chicagoans, there was no JJ Grey & Mofro. Now I did notice the lack of a crowd and the lights were lowered to the stage...

...then I finally noticed this screen was also lowered to the ground. My first thought was "FUCK ME, I SHOULDN'T HAVE GOOFED ON THE BULLHORN PREACHER ON THE WAY IN TODAY! GOD DOES HATE SINNERS." It turns out that a massive storm with 80MPH winds is coming to Lollapalooza. Again, that preacher was right, God does hate sinners...damn I'm in big trouble now...so I dropped to my knees in the middle of Grant Park and begin to pray

"Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends.
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,
So Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?"


Oh no, that's not praying, that is a Janis Joplin song. God Damn it...ooops...sorry about that...why don't I know any prayers...I am a heathen who deserves to die at Lollapalooza. Wait how about this one...

"Dear God, sorry to disturb you, but... I feel that I should be heard
Loud and clear. We all need a big reduction in amount of tears
And all the people that you made in your image, see them fighting
In the street 'cause they can't make opinions meet about God,
I can't believe in you"

Wait, that is an XTC song. It turns out I don't know a real prayer...so I got up and left Grant Park. I figured I'd ride the elevated Brown line around the Loop but suddenly that didn't seem like a good idea...

...because at four in the afternoon, it was as dark as night and the wind was rocking the train, so I ran down to the street just as the rain and wind began a ferocious attack on the city. I grabbed a taxi and spent two hours at my friends, Debbie & George's place...eating cheese and drinking wine.

 After the storm, I headed back to Grant Park...

 ...to a revised schedule that now runs until 11pm...that meant I would have to decide to stay for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who I've never seen live or leave early to catch the Afghan Whigs at the Metro. I decided to stay for the RHCP.

There were these cartoon artwork pictures up in the park, so I took this one for my brother, Jeff.
First I checked out Fun...they packed the small area around the Google Play Stage. They are a good pop band but everyone seemed to only know their hit song, "We Are Young". Franz Ferdinand still plays dance rock as good as anyone else but I really wanted to see Bloc Party...

 ...so I slogged my way across muddy Grant Park...

...to see Bloc Party. They sounded great. This band should be more popular, but what do I know.

 The Chili Pepers sounded great, I loved seeing them live, they play nothing but hit songs...

 ...but truth be told I wasn't impressed. Don't get me wrong, I loved seeing them live. But I really thought they would blow me away live...they didn't. BTW, I was playing with photoshop and liked the post apocalyptic look of this picture the best.

 I was really moved by Flea's post concert plea to support live music. It doesn't matter if it is rock, jazz, classical, punk or hip hop...go out and see live music. I agree with Flea.

The massive zombie like walk back into the real world after a strange day at Lolla.